Cell phone rentals

What is your current carrier and phone model? Often you can buy a package which will reduce the cost of texts, and this can be cheaper than buying new phones. If you let us know, someone may know of a package that your carrier didn't tell you about (the customer service people are notorious for not knowing much about international usage).

Renting phones is rarely a good option these days. However, if you do buy inexpensive phones (used "dumbphones" work fine for text and talk, as long as you don't need data), the local usage is cheap. A French cell phone will work in Belgium and vice versa, and while the rates are higher outside of the "home country," they are capped within the EU and so are not too high.

I have the same questions as Harold - what is your current carrier and phone model?

It would probably be cheaper to buy a basic PAYG phone rather than renting, either when you arrive in Europe or before leaving home from one of the "travel phone" firms such as Roam Simple, Cellular Abroad, Telestial, Mobal, EuroBuzz or others. Cost for a basic phone with a SIM is about $35. Check their respective websites for details.

Eurobuzz.com offers good rates. I just bought one for our trip in which we leave this weekend.

Many car-rental companies, mobile-phone companies, and even some hotels offer the option to rent a mobile phone with a European number. While this seems convenient, hidden fees (such as high per-minute charges or expensive shipping costs) can add up--which usually makes it a terrible value. You can probably buy a similar unlocked phone on Amazon.com for the price you'd pay to rent one. Or simply buy a disposable phone for about 30 euro upon arrival at any cell store.

Some places we know of, mostly through reader recommendations, to rent a phone through are:
Telestial - www.Telestial.com
Mobal - http://www.mobal.com/ tel. 1-888-888-9162
Cellular Abroad - http://www.cellularabroad.com tel. 800-287-5072

Planetfone - http://www.planetfone.com/ tel. 888-988-4777
Cellular Express Phone Rentals - http://cellularexpressphonerentals.com/international.html tel. 800-320-7776
Avis Phone Rental (only if you're renting a car through them) - www.avis.com tel. 800-331-1084

renting a phone puts the hand of the company into your pocket i.e. your credit card. I know a person who ended up with $1000 in disputed charges that she was unable to effectively dispute. it is dirt cheap to buy a small phone and chip with minutes and then you can limit your charges

Hi,
Some one else already mentioned Eurobuzz. We have had our Eurobuzz phone for several years. Recharge it every year for our trip to Europe. You don't want to spend endless hours hanging on your phone with Eurobuzz but for those moments when you really want a phone, this is great.

It is good all over western Europe (maybe beyond). All calls are 69 cents per minute. And I bet if you talk 61 seconds it will be counted as two minutes. but considering the alternatives...this is good. We did six weeks in Spain and ran up about $6.00 in charges, total. Less than one SIM card cost, less than one pay phone card.

It really made life good when we couldn't find our airbnb location and we phoned the host for the last few directions.

I wouldn't call the USA with it from Europe.

wayne iNWI

I bought an unlocked Europe compatible phone for about $30 from Amazon, then ordered a SIM card from Lebara, which was free, then loaded it with 10€ upon arrival, which was more than enough for my needs. Check out Lebara.com. They have data plans as well.